Ontario's daily COVID-19 case count drops to 627 following four days in the 700s

TORONTO -

Health officials in Ontario are reporting 627 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday after four straight days of new infection numbers in the 700s.

The seven-day average for the number of cases reported across Ontario now stands at 656. Last week, that number was 573.

Prior to Monday’s report, the province saw 741 cases of the novel coronavirus logged on Sunday, 728 on Saturday, 793 on Friday, and 711 on Thursday.

One additional death was also reported in the last 24 hours, pushing Ontario’s COVID-19 death toll to 9,968.

With 19,552 tests performed since Sunday, the positivity rate for the disease is 3.4 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health.

According to government data, most of the cases reported today involve those who are fully vaccinated.

At least 286 cases were found in those with two shots of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 282 involve those who are unvaccinated. Thirty-six cases were recorded in those with an unknown vaccination status and 23 were found in individuals who are only partially vaccinated. 

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ontario has logged 612,318 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19. That number also includes 596,753 cases that are now considered to be resolved.

Right now, there are 136 patients in hospital with COVID-19 and 133 of those patients are being treated in intensive care. The vaccination data for those in hospital with COVID-19 was not released.

WHERE ARE THE NEW CASES?

Most of the cases reported by the province on Monday were found in Toronto (92), Peel Region (53), Simcoe Muskoka (53) and York Region (38).

Other areas with relatively high case numbers reported include Sudbury (37), Waterloo (35), Algoma (34), Ottawa (32), Windsor-Essex (28), Niagara Region (25), Halton Region (24) and Durham Region (24).

Meanwhile, Ontario schools reported 112 new COVID-19 infections. Those cases involve 95 children and 17 staff members.

Of the province’s 4,844 schools, 600 have at least one confirmed case and nine are closed as a result.

As of Nov. 15, the Ministry of Health is no longer reporting data on COVID-19 variants of concern and their transmission in Ontario. 

UPDATE ON VACCINATIONS

Throughout the province’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, 22,809,355 shots have been administered so far.

That’s resulted in nearly 89 per cent of Ontarians over the age of 12 having received one dose and close to 86 per cent receiving both does.

As of this week, children in Ontario between the ages of five and 11 are eligible to get their COVID-19 vaccine and families can start booking their appointments as early as Tuesday.